Real Life
'' |image= |series= |production=40840-164 |producer(s)= |story= Harry 'Doc' Kloor |script= Jeri Taylor |director=Anson Williams |imdbref=tt0708954 |guests=Wendy Schaal as Charlene, Glenn Walker Harris Jr. as Jeffrey, Lindsey Haun as Belle, Stephen Ralston as Larg, Chad Haywood as K'Kath |previous_production=Before and After |next_production=Distant Origin |episode=VGR S03E22 |airdate=23 April 1997 |previous_release=(VGR) Before and After (Overall) Ferengi Love Songs |next_release=(VGR) Distant Origin (Overall) Soldiers of the Empire |story_date(s)=50836.2 (2373) |previous_story= Ferengi Love Songs Before and After |next_story= Soldiers of the Empire Distant Origin }} Summary When Voyager comes across a large debris field, the crew concludes that it's all that's left of the alien space station they were approaching. Finding a strange trail of plasma particles at the site, they set course to solve the mystery of what happened to the alien vessel. In the meantime, in an effort to expand the horizons of his program, the Doctor creates a "perfect" holodeck family: a wife named Charlene, teenage son Jeffrey, and a 10-year-old daughter named Belle. After he invites Kes and Torres to dine with his "family," Torres offers to tweak the program to make it more realistic. As Voyager follows the particle wake, a tornado-like phenomenon rips out of subspace and bears down on them. The ship comes through the anomaly relatively unscathed and Chakotay suggests that the next time an astral eddy appears, they capture some of its highly charged plasma particles. Back in the holodeck, the Doctor is not pleased with Torres' changes; his wife works, his daughter whines and his son hangs out with tough Klingon teens. Paris suggests that taking a shuttle into the wake of an eddy might offer the best opportunity to capture the valuable plasma particles. When another one forms, Paris attempts the maneuver, only to be caught up in yet another eddy. The crew watches in horror as Paris disappears with the eye of the astral phenomenon. The Doctor tries to talk things out with his rebellious son. The conversation turns into an argument that's interrupted when word arrives that Belle has been seriously injured in an accident. Realizing she's going to die, he abruptly ends the holodeck program. Paris learns that he's trapped between space and subspace, in the spawning area of the eddies. The only way out is the way he came in, inside a space tornado. As a huge storm appears in regular space, Voyager manages to beam Paris aboard. In Sickbay, Paris convinces the Doctor to return to his program and face the pain that life sometimes delivers. The Doctor reactivates the program and allows himself to grieve and draw comfort from the new closeness the tragedy brings to the remaining members of his family. Errors and Explanations Internet Movie Database Incorrectly regarded as goofs # After B'Elanna changes the Doctor's family, the wife's hair becomes short and "modern"; but later, it is long once again, even though the Doctor hasn't asked the computer to alter the program. The change of the wife's hairdo is, however, less the result of B'Elanna's or the Doctor's programming, but rather the personal choice of that holocharacter, who has been given a certain autonomy over her actions and preferences, given the nature of the holo-program. Nit Central # Spockania on Friday, December 08, 2000 - 5:44 pm: I will never understand Klingon customs... apparently, to become honorable warrior a Klingon youth has to jump out and attack some random passer-by? Now, presumably in the Doc's "suburb" the locals don't wander around armed. So the Doc's son will, presumably, leap out on some unarmed, unexpecting neighbor? Does this really seem like an "honorable" custom? Even if he attacked an armed person, does that really seem wise considering Klingons are vendetta-prone? Padawan Observer, formerly known as Padawan Nitpicker on Sunday, January 28, 2001 - 12:31 pm: Maybe B'Elanna put that in as a mockery of Klingon customs... # Vicky Oram on Friday, July 13, 2001 - 2:12 pm: You know when B'Elanna gets a bit p****d off about the Doctor's family being so perfect? How come when she freezes the program and pulls the Doc to one side the fire in the background is still moving? Isn't that part of the program and should therefore be frozen as well? X on Friday, July 13, 2001 - 11:57 pm: Maybe they reprogrammed the holodeck to maintain the motion in the fire, even when the program is paused, because it looks nice. # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 3:45 am: If the debris of the station covers 80 cubic kilometers, then why does the picture on the viewscreen show the debris clustered so close together? Jwb52z on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 3:27 pm:''There are two possible explanations. One is that the screen magnification was reduced to show the whole station. The second explanation is that Voyager was farther away from the station than we thought. ''Seniram 14:47, February 1, 2018 (UTC) There is a third explanation! The explosion probably occurred relatively recently, meaning the debris wouldn't have had time to separate when Voyager arrives. # B'Elanna orders the Holodeck to freeze program, but the Doctor doesn't freeze. The Doctor is just as dependent on the Holodeck emitters as everything else, so how does the computer differentiate between him and all the other holograms? Jwb52z on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 3:27 pm: When two similar programs are running on a computer, you can shut one down without the other being affected even if they are able to work together to do something. They're also SEPARATE programs. The computer was ordered to stop the holodeck program. The doctor is not a holodeck program in the same sense. LUIGI NOVI on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 10:48 pm: Simple. The holodeck freezes the holodeck program. Doc is not part of that program. He is independent of the holodeck program, and has control over his shutdown sequence, unless someone with command authority specifically shuts him down. # So why didn't the Doctor just freeze the program instead of going through the charade of operating on his holographic daughter? Of course, the whole little psycho-drama is ludicrous, because the Doctor could restart the program at any point and have Belle be well. The Doctor might stay with it to better understand human emotions, but he better than anyone should know that whatever happens in this program it can just be restarted and the 'tragedy' avoided. Jwb52z on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 3:27 pm: He wanted to know what it was like to have a real family with all the problems and real families can't reboot their dead relatives. Category:Episodes Category:Voyager